"Alaska Groundfish Research"

Since 1995, the North Pacific Fishery Management Councils (NPFMC) Groundfish Plan Teams have prepared a separate Ecosystem Considerations section to the annual SAFE report. The intent of the Ecosystems Considerations section is to provide the Council with information about the effects of fishing from an ecosystem perspective, and the effects of environmental change on fish stocks. The effects of fishing on ecosystems have not been incorporated into most stock assessments, in part due to data limitations. Most single species models cannot directly incorporate the breadth and complexity of much of this information. ABC recommendations may or may not reflect discussion regarding ecosystem considerations. This information is useful for effective fishery management and maintaining sustainability of marine ecosystems. The Ecosystems Considerations chapter attempts to bridge this gap by identifying specific ecosystem concerns that should be considered by fishery managers, particularly during the annual process of setting catch limits on groundfish.

The domestic groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. This report contains figures and tables which summarize various aspects of the economic performance of the fishery. Generally, data are presented for the domestic groundfish fishery for 1997 through 2001. Limited catch and ex-vessel value data are reported for earlier years in order to depict the rapid development of the domestic groundfish fishery in the 1980s and to provide a more complete historical perspective on catch. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is not included in data for the groundfish fishery in this report because for management purposes halibut is not part of the groundfish complex.

Since 1995, the North Pacific Fishery Management Councils (NPFMC) Groundfish Plan Teams have prepared a separate Ecosystem Considerations section to the annual SAFE report. The intent of the Ecosystems Considerations section is to provide the Council with information about the effects of fishing from an ecosystem perspective, and the effects of environmental change on fish stocks. The effects of fishing on ecosystems have not been incorporated into most stock assessments, in part due to data limitations. Most single species models cannot directly incorporate the breadth and complexity of much of this information. ABC recommendations may or may not reflect discussion regarding ecosystem considerations. This information is useful for effective fishery management and maintaining sustainability of marine ecosystems. The Ecosystems Considerations chapter attempts to bridge this gap by identifying specific ecosystem concerns that should be considered by fishery managers, particularly during the annual process of setting catch limits on groundfish.

An essential component of any mark and recapture study that seeks to estimate fish population abundance, exploitation rates, or migration rates from tagging data is the tag-reporting rate. We obtained tag-reporting rates for the sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria fishery during 1980–1998 by comparing tag returns in the fishery to tag returns from a scientific survey where all tag recoveries were assumed to be reported. Analytical formulae were derived for the measurement error associated with the estimates. When pooled over geographic areas or years, estimates of reporting rates were reasonably precise with coefficients of variation (CVs) usually less than 25%. Reporting rates were highest in the central (0.385) and eastern (0.315) Gulf of Alaska, intermediate in the western Gulf of Alaska (0.269), and lowest in the Aleutians (0.174) and Bering Sea (0.169). Rates pooled over all areas increased from lows of 0.102–0.248 in 1980–1982 to a peak of 0.465 in 1985 before declining to 0.199 in 1986 and 0.157 in 1987. The reporting rate increased gradually and fluctuated between 0.376 and 0.450 since 1995. The increase in reporting in 1995 was coincidental with the implementation of the Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system. The linear increase in reporting rates during 1986–1998 was significant. Factors that may have influenced the reporting rate were the number of tags available for recovery, the length of the commercial fishing season, the presence of scientific observers on commercial vessels, and the tag reward program. Pooled over all years and areas the tag-reporting rate has been 0.276 with a CV of 4.2%.

The domestic groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. This report contains figures and tables which summarize various aspects of the economic performance of the fishery. Generally, data are presented for the domestic groundfish fishery for 1996 through 2000. Limited catch and ex-vessel value data are reported for earlier years in order to depict the rapid development of the domestic groundfish fishery in the 1980s and to provide a more complete historical perspective on catch. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is not included in data for the groundfish fishery in this report because for management purposes halibut is not part of the groundfish complex.

The domestic groundfish fishery off Alaska is an important segment of the U.S. fishing industry. This report presents data which summarize various aspects of the economic performance of the fishery. Generally, data are presented for the domestic groundfish fishery for 1995 through 1999. Limited catch and ex-vessel value data are reported for earlier years in order to depict the rapid development of the domestic groundfish fishery in the 1980s and to provide a more complete historical perspective on catch. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is not included in this report because for management purposes halibut is not part of the groundfish complex.

Since 1995, the North Pacific Fishery Management Councils (NPFMC) Groundfish Plan Teams have prepared a separate Ecosystem Considerations section to the annual SAFE report. The intent of the Ecosystems Considerations section is to provide the Council with information about the effects of fishing from an ecosystem perspective, and the effects of environmental change on fish stocks. The effects of fishing on ecosystems have not been incorporated into most stock assessments, in part due to data limitations. Most single species models cannot directly incorporate the breadth and complexity of much of this information. ABC recommendations may or may not reflect discussion regarding ecosystem considerations. This information is useful for effective fishery management and maintaining sustainability of marine ecosystems. The Ecosystems Considerations chapter attempts to bridge this gap by identifying specific ecosystem concerns that should be considered by fishery managers, particularly during the annual process of setting catch limits on groundfish.

This report presents data which summarize various aspects of the economic performance of the groundfish fishery off Alaska. Generally, data are presented for the domestic groundfish fishery for 1994 through 1998. However, because 1998 ex-vessel and product price data for Alaska groundfish are not available, those prices and associated values are only reported through 1997. Limited catch and ex-vessel value data are reported for earlier years in order to depict the rapid development of the domestic groundfish fishery in the 1980s and to provide a more complete historical perspective on catch. Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is not included in this report because for management purposes halibut is not part of the groundfish complex.